El Toro Girl Killed, Friend Hurt When Truck Hits Bicycle

A 9-year-old El Toro girl was killed and a 5-year-old boy critically injured when the bike they were riding was hit by a pickup truck.

Melissa G. Prosek was giving her friend, Charles (Ricky) Davidson, a ride home just after dark on Monday evening when they were hit by the truck as they entered a crosswalk at the corner of Rockfield Boulevard and Landisview Avenue, police said.

The children had been playing tennis at a neighborhood school in El Toro and were returning home when the accident occurred.

Just after dark, parents--including Ricky’s mother, Sarah Davidson--started out to pick up the children by car.

“On the way, a little boy told us there had been an accident,” Davidson said Tuesday.

The two children were in the crosswalk beneath a streetlight when they were hit by a truck driven by a Mission Viejo man, according to police.

Melissa died at Mission Community Hospital in Mission Viejo; Ricky was reported in critical condition Tuesday in the hospital’s intensive care unit.

“I don’t think Melissa ever knew what happened,” Davidson said. “It was like she took the full impact of the pickup truck.”

Melissa lived with her mother, Jacqueline Prosek, on Gemwood Drive, along with a sister, Lisa, 18, and a brother, Robbie, 12.

She was a third-grade student at Ralph Gates Elementary School, just a few blocks from her home, but on the opposite side of busy Rockfield Boulevard.

CHP Officer Jim Smith said that the pickup’s driver had not been cited but that the accident still is under investigation.